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The longtime White House correspondent talks about secretive presidents, Scott McClellan versus Tony Snow and why there's no such thing as a rude question.

Q: In your new book, "Watchdogs of Democracy?" you contend that each of the nine U.S. presidents you have covered, starting with John F. Kennedy, has slyly manipulated the media to suit his own ends. If so, what keeps you returning to the daily press briefings at the White House?

I want to stay au courant!

As a former wire-service reporter, and now as a columnist for Hearst Newspapers, do you feel that any real information comes out of the daily press briefings these days?

Sometimes. Inadvertently. I'm teasing. Once in a while you do get a story. But most of the time you learn how the administration spins and vamps to avoid telling you what is really going on. Even then, that's a story.

Do you think Tony Snow, the new White House press secretary, is likely to be more forthcoming than his predecessor, Scott McClellan?

No. I don't think he is going to give us more information. I think he is a little smoother and slicker and he is trying to master how to give you a karate chop and still smile.

You yourself favor the blunt-instrument approach and were known to have asked McClellan, on an almost daily basis, why the administration persisted in bombing "innocent Iraqis."

I am sure I irritated him. But at the same time, we were still on speaking terms when he left. I wrote him a note wishing him great success in his future. We were friends, in a superficial way.

It sounds as if you basically liked him as a human being.

I like all human beings.

I would call that dodging the question.

No, I do like all human beings, but it's what they make of themselves that really hurts sometimes.

How did you feel when President Bush, or rather his aides, banished you from your longtime front-row perch at White House press conferences?

Photo

Helen Thomas.Credit
Jeff Hutchens for The New York Times

That was on March 6, 2003. I didn't want to be in the back row, and more than that, I would have liked to be called on. I would have asked the president, "Why are we going to war?" This is the most secretive administration I have ever covered.

Have you ever requested a sit-down interview with President Bush?

No. I didn't think it was possible, and I don't like to be ignored or turned down.

Are you concerned that the members of the Bush administration seem to give most of their interviews to Fox News?,

No. It's always good to hear whatever anyone in power has to say, and if Fox has the access, good. If they can produce the news, that's what we want. We want the people to be informed.

In your new book, your criticism extends to Democrats as well, including L.B.J., who demonized reporters as "spies."

L.B.J. was actually talkative, and we got a lot of insight into his emotional roller coaster during Vietnam. He was secretive and paranoid in some ways, but it was interesting; you always kind of knew what was going on. He would tell you something and then say, "That's all off the record," at the same time that you knew he wanted you to write it.

Did you find President Clinton secretive?

He kept secrets, but I didn't have this sense of "Darkness at Noon."

At 85, do you ever take vacations?

Not in a long time. My vacation is to go to my apartment horizontal.

How would you define the difference between a probing question and a rude one?

I don't think there are any rude questions. I don't even like reporters to say thank you.

But you're the one who officially said, "Thank you, Mr. President," at the close of every press conference until 2003, when the practice was abruptly discontinued.

"Thank you" is fine at the end of a press conference. But I don't think you thank the president every time he answers a question. That's his job.

In which case, I won't thank you for granting this interview, lest you judge me too deferential.